Democratic Party of Georgia

The Democratic Party of Georgia is the state affiliate of the Democratic Party in Georgia. The party was once a predominantly-conservative party, and it controlled Georgia politics from 1872 to 2002, holding the Governor's Mansion, the state legislature, and most statewide offices for 130 years. The Democrats suffered from factionalism, however, and the conservative Southern Democrats clashed with the social liberal faction of the party during the era of the Civil Rights movement (1950s-1960s). Georgia governor Jimmy Carter stood on a reformist platform, and he won over all of his state's counties during the 1976 presidential election. However, the party was weakened with Sonny Perdue's defection to the Republican Party in 1998, and the Democrat Roy Barnes was defeated in the 2002 election. Perdue's victory marked the decline of the Georgia Democrats, and the defection of four State Senate Democrats would hand the upper house to the Georgia Republican Party, while the Democrats lost control of the State House of Representatives in 2004. In 2010, the Republican Nathan Deal won the gubernatorial election, and Republicans also won every statewide office. In 2017, the Democrats held just 18/56 State Senate seats and 60/180 State House of Representatives seats.